EVENTS: The Bayline Gathering, Part 04

Our final installment of the Bayline Gathering kicks off with one of the Bay Area’s infamous Bluebirds that are not 510s. Remember the Appliance-shod 710 from Part 03?  This tsurikawa strappin’ Datsun 610 is his partner in crime. Despite the mismatched Longchamps and MKIs it exudes shakotan cool.

Both of these stunning rotaries belong to the same lucky owner. I’ve long for a first-gen Mazda RX-7 on Advan 3-spokes, so this one pushes all my buttons except for one thing — I was distracted by the stunning silvery blue RX-2 sedan next to it with classic Auto Bahns polished to a blinding gleam.

Meanwhile, Ben was on the other side of the lot drooling uncontrollably. Not only is the daruma one of his all time favorites, he loves cars that subscribe to the Three Ss — simple, shiro, and shakotan. In this case add steelies, painted red to match the factory ST stripe, and you have nothing suplerfluous, just pure uncut Celica extract.

If John wasn’t stuck in Texas, he’d likely be closely examining this wicked Datsun 510. Its roll bar, race mirrors and headlight intake indicate something monstrous beneath the hood, and its cambered squat give it the look of a puma waiting to pounce. Everything else is as smooth as a dolphin’s belly, perfect for taking down unsuspecting rivals.

One of these days we really must hold an official JNC 510 vs E70 Battle Royale to see who’s the king of three-box sedans. This TE72 Corolla on Work Equip 03s is the daily driver of Joey from Performance Options, which means it could probably give the 510 above a run for the money. But we won’t know for sure until the both enter the Thunderdome!

More Mazda love. This clean-as-a-cottonball early steel-bumpered RX-7 on SSR meshies is righteous 70s sexiness. Matchbox should make a 1:64 scale model of this to complement our latest IMSA-bodied Hot Wheels version.

There’s few things we love more than someone taking a completely unloved old Japanese car and making it their own. The Mazda 323 wagon, popular in Europe and Asia, is all but forgotten here in the States. It brings us great joy to see someone rocking it proudly. 10,000 bonus points for wagoning!

James, the latest addition to the JNC Team, might appreciate this AE86 because he’s originally from one of those islands left of Europe and this hachiroku oozes Ireland style. Toyota gave us Americans the Trueno flip-ups, while sending all the fixed-headlight Levins to the UK and Republic of Ireland. You’ll see cars just like this whizzing about the Emerald Isle, with their slightly different “Twin Cam 16V” decals and 13-inch Superlites.

For the purists crying out for mercy thusfar, fear not. We have a slew of pristine, stock kyuusha to show you, starting with this zenki ’85 Corolla GT-S. In the early days of drifting Ryan Bigan used to run with Alex Pfeiffer and Hiro Fujita, the Bay Area’s pioneers of drift. He’s owned 18 AE86s since then, but instead of sliding them around cones he now chooses to keep them bone stock.

It even has the rare two-tone red and burgundy interior. Except for the Nardi wheel, pedals and shift knob, this thing could easily pass for showroom fresh circa 1985. How many original Corolla GT-Ss these are left in the world?

Mark Duncan‘s RHD B110 Sunny two-door sedan is all original aside from the whitewall tires. But perhaps even more amazingly, Mark drove the car eight hours from San Diego to attend the Historic Japanese Car Gathering.

For those who prefer their A60 Supras without 7M or JZ power, here’s an all-original, single owner car in all its 379 Maroon Metallic glory.

Likewise, we salute the owner of this Datsun 240Z‘s Ghandi-like willpower to keep his S30 stock. It even has a complete set of original hubcaps!

The owner of this beautifully restored Datsun 510 barely uttered any English, but his love for the car spoke volumes. Note the awesome Jalisco, Mexico license plate. It’s a rare solid axle MDM 510 — Mexico domestico mercado!

To the non-Datsunfreak this Datsun 510 two-door sedan may look like just another Bluebird on Panasports. But in fact, it’s a rare 1968 first-year model, which means it’s managed to remain unscathed by hordes of Peter Brock wannabes longer almost than any other 510!

We were able to get a closer look at its dashboard to show you the early horizontal speedometers. Note the delicate elegance of its original steering wheel.

The slide rule speedo lasted until 1969, but opposing wipers were available only on 1968 models. A true early ‘bird.

Despite the presence of a flock of JDM Skylines, the show’s rarest beast of all was this 1974 Dodge Colt GT. Even a base version of this Chrysler-badged Mitsubishi Galant would be rarer than hen’s teeth, but this is the GT — the sportiest trim level — denoted by a muscley factory black stripe.

As Indiana Jones would say, “It belongs in a museum!” because even Mitsubishi lacks this chassis in their own gallery in Japan.

And lastly, before we bid sayonara we must flaunt the immensely cool souvenirs we received from our venture to NorCal. As we mentioned, Diane Krey-Wesley, the actress who played Mary in the kenmeri Skyline ads, was at the show.

Lovely lady that she is, Diane brought her own stack of photos, reprinted from one of her commercial shoots in Japan, and signed them all day long. Naturally, we also asked for her signature on one of the Hot Wheels kenmeris designed by Jun Imai as well. She numbered each one that she autographed, and guess which number we got?

As you may have heard, both Diane and Jun will be at the JCCS on September 15, so bring your Hot Wheels for them to sign!

More photos from the Bayline Gathering can be found in the gallery below, and in case you missed it, here are Parts 01, 02 and 03.

Photos by Ben Hsu. Special thanks to Ricky Silverio.

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29 Responses to EVENTS: The Bayline Gathering, Part 04

  1. krnaidas says:

    very hapy to see a lone galant! there’s so little love for early mitsus 🙁

    • I would say the nostalgic import community still and do show luv for the early Mitsus, but there’s oh so few to even see, let alone even being available. I know of the early “Dodge Colt” aka “Lancer in disguise” here in the US, also known as the “L-type”, but I’ve only seen those on very very rare occasions. The Galant VR4 still gets acknowledgement from knowing enthusiasts.

  2. Ben T. says:

    Indeed, the lone galant is a very pleasant site. I own a ’79 Galant Lambda (Dodge Challenger in the US) and from where I’m from the lambda is rarer than the galant in thread. I see a lot of those here. Lots and lots of old Mitsus! Sadly most of them are left to be forgotten on the side of the road.

  3. Brad Gavin says:

    I had a 68 510 back in 1995 it was apparently one of the 3 or 4 market test cars from Datsun for the Australian market. I had no idea it was special when I had it. I found out about 3 years later. Won’t tell you what happened to it. It will make you cry. Makes me cry. Glad to see this one didn’t meet the same fate.

  4. DrNick says:

    Glad to see an ambassador of Mexican Japanese Nostalgic cars. You guys should make an article of the scene here in TJ. There are a lot of nice nostalgic cars, from the heavily modified to look like Japanese domestic cars (fender mirrors are quite common) to the bone stock ones (a few blocks from here there is a Corolla GT-S Ae86 as stock as one could be and even in my school i have spotted several boxy corollas that look like they just came out of the factory). I don’t know who started it but most pre 80’s toyotas now wear supra wheels. It is pretty nice to see you guys should check them out.

    • pstar says:

      what are some typical mexican style mods?

      this scene sounds interesting to me, and i think im not alone in having NO idea what the 1970s and 80s domestic south of the border car scene was like, if there even was one. Similar style as Mexicans in ‘merica had?

      • DrNick says:

        Here in TJ the are two types of old Japanese Cars. Either the Bone stock ones (some look that they have gone through some rough past and some look ok. No rust bone stock cars being used by common people) and the the ones that look like the original Japanese ones. I don’t know who started it but seems that everysingle old toyota car that has been modified has a pair of old supra cross rims. Even old Hiaces have those wheels!! I have seen a couple of them.Fender mirrors are quite commom (before i moved here i have only seen them in pictures). Now most Datsuns are bone stock, like the one on the picture. There are ALOT of hardbody trucks here from the old Datsun days. its nice to note that most people who have datsuns take really good care of them probably becuase they never break down and they dont use that much gas. Close to my house there is a 1600 that looks like it was bought 5 years ago that shows how good it is kept.

  5. Dave says:

    Wow I really dig that RX-2. That white Celica with red wheels is also pretty sweet. So is this an annual event? If so, I’m so there next year!

  6. Bobby says:

    Hi! Terrific cars! I’ve been following your pics of this event in particular since the earliest post with a nice Flatty Starion. I imagine your new staffer James might clear this up, too, but Ireland is not one of the British Isles. England, Scotland and Wales might have received the Levin style Corolla, too, for all I know, but it’s definitely a popular car in the Republic of Ireland, which is not British, although it is neighbors with Great Britain.

    • Ben says:

      Noted, but since we are American it’s all just “over there” for us. At least I didn’t call it part of Europe! 🙂

      • Bobby says:

        Well, I’m glad I didn’t come across as rude – thanks for replying. I am American, too, actually. I lived in Dublin for a year for my work and try to go back and visit every few years. I never spied that many Japanese classics in Ireland to tell you the truth, but they might be more prevalent out in the countryside where they’d be easier to store.

  7. Tj says:

    Oh man that colt has made my day. I too own a Mitsu Galant hardtop, the Australian equivalent of the colt with a 4G63 twin cam hiding under the bonnet 😀
    From what the mitsu scene down here can gather 3000 were planned to be imported but due to the popularity of other coupes at the time like the Celica and 610SSS it didn’t sell very well and as best as we can guess we reckon that only about 1500 were even sold.

    We have an owner’s register on our forum over at sigma-galant.com and so far we have less than 20 in captivity.

  8. buzzin says:

    many beautiful cars, great to see a series one Rx7 there,
    those steel bumpers and small tails lights look awesome,
    made me want to take mine for a drive, so see ya…

  9. Nigel says:

    That blue 510 on Hayashi’s was truly awesome !

  10. ylee says:

    I believe the baby blue 510 is sportin’ Rota Shakotans. correct me if im wrong.

    • I agree, they are Shakotans…I’ve met the lucky owner a few times at the old school end of month meets at Lawrence Expressway & El Camino…as for the the pair of Mazdas up top, those belong to none other than Mazda Fanatic Extraordinaire…Gary!!! Who’s also in the process of working on his RX3 wagon…the dude is amazing when it comes to his Mazdas!! Kudos Gary!! Makes me wish I had your skills…

      • gary tawzer says:

        thank you angelito, it really does take alot to build these cars to that condition. unfortunatly its a sad day, the copper-red rx-7 was totalled 2 weeks ago when someone carelessly pulled out in front of me and i couldn’t stop in time. however i will get another gsl-se chasis and have a new one built by next years meet. this will however make it difficult to have the rx-3 station wagon finished also.

    • Ben says:

      once again, Rotaaaaaaaaaaa! /shakefistinair

      • ylee says:

        Don’t be sad Ben. 🙂 in the end, the thing that matters most, is if the person actually drives and enjoys their car.

  11. Alex says:

    I know the silver original 510 owner in real life. Pretty cool guy! So is his mother and sister.

  12. ken says:

    There are actually two colts running around town here in Oklahoma. One looks just like the one pictured. The other is a wagon. I have only seen the orange one a couple of times. Then next time I see it I will chase the owner down for info. The wagon hasn’t moved in quite some time, but there is a current tag on it and the tires are holding air. Just another one I have check on as well.

  13. dennisd says:

    I don’t recall ever seeing a Mazda 323 wagon in person before. Maybe I did once but don’t remember. Nevertheless, if I saw that specific one rolling down the street when I was a young lad, you betcha I would have remembered it. It looks coooool!

  14. chris says:

    Thanks for the write up on my car. i own the 68′ 2 door. Most people cant tell that it’s any different than the rest of the white 510’s on pannas or rotas (and theres a lot of them). Another way to pick out a 68 in the crowd is, 68’s didn’t come with rear side marker lights. thanks again JNC!

  15. Zipppo says:

    Julldogs 71 white RA21 Daruma Celica looks very nice. Clean and simple.
    Many other nice cars there as well. Enjoyed WIQDTOY as well. The only one left from the trio of Ray, Andy and Koich that built these three cars. Andy and Koich both have since sold off their cars.

    Nice meet and great location. Hopefully maore meets and more frequently!

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